Is it terribly wrong of me to idly wonder if I should release some idiotic product into this market? I have read some of these product descriptions over the years, and after I finally stopped laughing (sometimes due to almost passing out from lack of air...) I can't help but come up with my own, even dafter ideas for 'audiophile' connectivity. I've invented some absolutely brilliant pseudoscientific rationalisations for special cables, for instance, and I've been convinced for a long time that one could, if one had a certain ethical flexibility regarding ones customers, make a really silly amount of money from them.

I mean, there must be people buying this crap, after all, or the suppliers wouldn't still be in business. Like spam, it works well enough to keep them spamming. So in that case, as the mark, I mean valued customer, obviously has more money than sense, it almost seems a shame to let it get away

It all seems to hinge on a certain amount of self-selecting psychology. The end user is convinced they have a special ability regarding audio than few others have, and therefore can really hear the difference that solid silver multistranded directional HDMI cable with a carbon-fibre sheath and special holy-water reservoir makes. Once they have spend several thousand dollars a meter on it, they damn well CAN hear a difference, their own minds ensure that. Which just reinforces the whole process...

So, in the end, you can't convince them they're wrong at all, as your measurements proving no difference between the ubercable and a bit of mains wiring merely shows that what they can hear is so subtle mere technology can't see it.

Weird. But strangely funny.

pca